The Star, a 2017 CGI animated film
from Sony Pictures Animation and Jim Henson Productions, contains multiple
celebrities voicing animals that save pregnant Mary of Nazareth from an
assassin that looks and acts like a disgruntled Skyrim player. If it sounds like
too much, rest assured the movie treats the source material with respect but
humanizes Joseph and Mary more than any other Nativity. The animals don’t break
the fourth wall, make pop culture references, or engage in gross out humor. In
fact half of the celebrities you’ll need to read the credits to know they had a
part. In their music, they don’t need the character to sing, the movie uses the music to underline the major moments without needing to halt the action. Even weirder, they reference actual scriptural occurrences in one-off jokes and the selfish characters go through their third act change from self-reflection and nothing more. They embrace the spiritual nature of the work while also comedically representing the animals involved. They represent the time period well without feeling compelled to make it inaccessible to a modern audience. There’s tropes of other animated films but never to the erasure of the Nativity story. The film’s well-made, entertaining, touching, and amusing enough for the whole family. Not incredible, but certainly raises the bar for kids’ entertainment based off the Bible.
Rozlynd
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